Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday that his country had lost between $ 80 billion and $ 90 billion over the past seven years, a sign that Egypt’s tourism was declining.
The tourism sector is a key pillar of Egypt’s economy, a source of income for millions of Egyptians and a major supplier of hard currency, but it has been badly hit by years of political turmoil following the 2011 uprising.
Egyptian tourism received a devastating blow from the bombing of a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai peninsula in late October 2015, killing 224 people on board.
“In order to have the necessary tourism, we have very strong security,” said Sisi, speaking at the “Tale of the Country” conference, in which he seeks to show what he has achieved in the last four years of the country’s projects and the monetary and financial position of his country.
“Over the past seven years, we have lost between $ 80 billion and $ 90 billion that we desperately needed.”
The temptation of the Egyptian tourist destination increased following the decision of the Central Bank to liberalize the pound exchange rate in November 2016, which led to a devaluation of the local currency by half and boosted the competitiveness of the sector.
Egypt recorded a jump of 123.5 percent in tourism revenues to about $ 7.6 billion in 2017, with the number of tourists coming to the country up 53.7 percent to about 8.3 million.